On 12 July 2023 Dorothy Butchard, Centre for Urban Wellbeing Theme Lead on ‘Imagining Wellbeing’, led a theme workshop co-hosted by the Centre for Urban Wellbeing and Centre for Digital Cultures at University of Birmingham. This workshop emphasised creativity, art, and action, and links directly into a consultation about Birmingham’s ambitious plans to transform the city by 2040 that some of the participants had engaged with.
In the workshop, participants discussed, ‘How do we envision the experience of wellbeing and factors that influence it? How has wellbeing been conceptualized over time? And what can historical, political, legal and creative narratives tell us about the private and communal sustainability of wellbeing?’
Workshop sessions on ‘Work, Mobility and Shared Spaces’ were led by Betsy Porritt, Rona Cran, and John Munro, and sessions on ‘Community, Fantasy and the ‘Good Life’’ included Ellen Addis, Katie Deane, and Niall Gallen. Sessions on Health, Activism and Radical Alternatives featured David James, Christina Wilkins, Roxanne Douglas, and Rex Ferguson, and a session on the Digital Health Self was with Dr Rachael Kent. The Wellbeing, Worldbuilding and Being Online sessions included Rosie Graham, Jo Walton, and Jeremy Kidwell.
I was moved by the variety of creative ways that cities and their transformations could be imagined. Citizen responses to urban transformation are complex and Birmingham’s plans to transform the city by 2040 have angered some residents caught up in its early phases, including in my own neighbourhood of Ladywood. My neighbours have responded creatively with art – including videos and poems about the disconnection between council plans and the communities they affect. The results of workshops like this can shape policy and empower communities to express themselves creatively.